Not Time For Impatience or Complacency - Media's Role(September 1, 2003)

As a father of a son, who proudly served his country in Iraq, I would like to remind all of those who seem to forget that it is not even six months since the “statue” of Saddam was seen being pulled down by a world wide audience.

Why? Because it seems that I only hear from most in the media about what is going wrong in Iraq including the loss of our troops by ones and twos from terrorist attacks and by non-combat accidents. And while any loss of life is very regrettable and saddening, I salute all those who have fallen for the purpose of making our country safer from those wanting to do the same within the borders of the USA and its allies.

It is almost like some of these types, including those with political motivations, are wishing for the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan to worsen for the United States. Now, I doubt that is the real case, but why not focus on what has been accomplishedeven reminding all of us about how long it took to rebuild Germany, Japan, and the other countries ravaged during World War II.

Or simply put it into perspective with how long it took to clear all the debris from the fallen World Trade Center towers . . . which didn't involve ongoing terrorist attacks on the New York police, firefighters, citizens, and infrastructure . . . let alone, having to rebuild its political system, civil services and economy from scratch.

It is not time for any of us in the United States or elsewhere to become impatient and/or complacent with the efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan, or elsewhere once troops have been committed!

Hopefully, remembering those 3,000 plus innocent lives who died in the collapsing towers, the charred Pentagon, the “let's roll” flight, and the other flights on September 11, 2001 should always be enough to stay the course and be patient for whatever it might take to prevent the same . . . and that especially goes for the media!